I have one of every format I ever purchased: open-reel, cassette, 8-track, Elcaset, LP, CD, MiniDisc... The only thing I don't have is DCC. In every format I have at least one recording not available on any other. That is reason enough for me!

Submitted by John Gruesen (not verified) on November 21, 2010 - 10:18am

I keep my records for several reasons. First, the cost of replacing them would have been very high. Secondly, I knew that most of them would get less and less playing as time went on. Finally, the audio quality of the first 15 years of CD players was questionable, at best, in the price range I could afford. I don't see me dumping my CDs for the same reasons, plus the fact it leaves a "hard" copy in your control. I still have my almost 40-year-old SL-120, although the original SME SII was replaced with a SIII in the early '80s. It only gets used a couple times a month anymore. There have been some CDs that I have bought that are duplicates of vinyl I still have, but mainly to play in the car or to replace very well-worn favorites. My first CD player, bought in the mid '90s and very well-reviewed at the time for its price range ($550), was torture to listen to and was replaced by something much more satisfactory about seven years ago.

When CD came out, I sold all my audiophile cassettes from MFSL, In Sync Labs, Audible Illusions, Aesthetic Audio, and Direct to Tape and my Nakamichi cassette deck to purchase the perfect sound forever CD format via the awful-sounding Sony CDP-101. After six months, I sold it. The pain of listening to music was just too intense. Since then, CD has gotten better but it is still complete crap. On the other hand, I have discovered other digital formats I like: SACD, DVD-Audio, and high-resolution downloads. I wish I had never sold my audiophile cassettes, as after decades of hunting, most were nowhere to be found and the few I found cost way too much money. CD's false advertising cost me my audiophile cassette collection and I have never forgiven Sony for that. Perfect sound forever was not a promise it was a curse, IMHO.

I gradually replaced all the cassettes I really liked with LPs and CDs. I am now doing the same with my digital library, as I originally ripped a number CDs to MP3. I am now re-ripping to WMA lossless, but luckily, there aren't many to do, as I discovered the superiority of lossless quite early on.

I took my turntable out of my system five or six years ago. I don't see myself ever going back to analog records, even though I have not sold my record collection started back in the '50s. If I had a buyer for my 300 or so records, I would sell them.

Thankfully, I kept all of my LPs from as far back as the '50s. The same is true of much of my stereo gear (eg original Marantz 9s and Klipschorns). When people were trashing their LPs in the early '80s for perfect sound forever, I was buying them up at bargain basement prices. My wife calls me a music pack rat and I'm proud to agree with her.

Yeah, I tried getting into vinyl in the '90s, but decided that more was available on CD at the time. I only had a small vinyl collection at the time, which I traded for CDs. Now I almost only buy vinyl

Dumped records for CDs. Tapes were my last hold out. I must say I miss my cassettes most. I am very slowly rebuilding my records. Tapes are very hard to find now. I must say that SACD has been a salvation to me, it is an almost perfect format.

I have given away many records, tapes, and CDs, but never because the format was no longer totally hip. When I finished ripping all my CDs to my 1TB hard drive, it died. New drive was free. When I have a mirror drive installed, I may try again.

Since the invention of MP3 players & DACs, I've only purged what CDs & vinyl records I no longer want (almost all of them). I sell these to local record traders & use the proceeds to purchase music that I don't have.

I was born in 1961 and didn't have any money for music until my early twenties, which coincided with the cassette tape era—a truly low-fi experience, despite my Nakamichi 505. Bought my first CD in 1985 and ditched all the cassettes. Of course, now I am a vinyl junkie, but I won't be disposing of any of my CDs any time soon

I still have several hundred records and (self-recorded) tapes. No plans to get rid of my collection of CDs either. I continue to listen to all the formats from time to time, including my MP3 recordings. Some recordings are only available on one format.

Still have about 500 cassettes, purchased or recorded from CDs in the late '80s when my car had only a cassette player. Although I haven't listened to 90% of them in the last decade, I hate to throw them out. I feel sorry for them. Is there a heaven for cassette tapes?